gdh

Thanks, looks tidy stuff.

Random thoughts: If you're looking second hand try and find one that has been well serviced. Hours should only be used as a guide - 5000 hours running a firewood processor is better than 3000 of haulage for example. My experience tends to be with larger tractors but I find that 6000 hours of average use is where you start to get major issues. The flipside of that is might have just had a new gearbox etc if you buy it at that age. Look at the tyres, if they need replacing you'll easily spend 1-2k. Aggriaffaires is worth a look but it's better to go private with a local or through a dealer for backup. If you're looking at running newer machinery check it's got enough spools. There's a ton of minor checks to do when buying but I'll leave that to someone who knows better than me.

Selling the equipment is no problem, although arguably you'd get a better price individually but a business has very little value unless you have contracts in place to prove it would give you income. I know a few people who have failed to sell but no one who has unfortunately.

Did you check it was 2 stroke oil you put in to the mix? When someone put straight petrol in my 357 it seized completely rather than fail, the only similar problem I've had was with a perished pipe on a brand new saw. I think the 550/60s are the best all round saw in every way.... except reliability.

It seems balanced and handles well on a 24 but doesn't struggle if you do want to go bigger.

The 12 and 16 way splitters are very good for big logs and make tidy stuff but they need a fair bit of power and they're only worth it for large diameters - putting logs through that are only slightly bigger than the inner ring just results in 4 nice pieces and a ring of kindling. We've got a 4, 12 and 6way currently on our 480+ and with a small amount of grading the logs to go through first and an extra sorting grate on the end of the conveyor we're making tidy stuff.

I've also seen 2 planks of wood, the width of bags apart, with nails sticking up to hang the bags on so you can do a few at once.

572, 576, 560x2 and 550 for daily use (cutting firewood and a bit of felling). A top handle oleo Mac (I'll probably be told off for having one on the ground ;)) and a load of oleo mac saws in pieces and on a drill because they uses to be our go to saws. A couple of eighties stihls somewhere as well.

Fuelwood do one for the manual heizohacks. It's got a stop/start button, one for forwards and one you hold for reverse. Costs around £1400 I think.

That's the maximum, I've seen it offered at that but I've never seen anyone who has paid it.. yet. In some areas you can still get it for £60. Here in mid Wales is around £68 delivered going up to £70 now. Softwood isn't much cheaper anymore either.

I've also just got a 572 and it's good so far, seems to cut slightly faster than my 576 and feels more like a 560 with a bigger bar (24inch) than a big saw but in a good way. On a side note the new husqvarna chain seems to perform better when cutting with the grain than other chains but that might just be me.

Looks well organised and reasonably fast, so many of the big processors actually look quite slow on normal timber but that looks alright. I would hope that wood is dry going in but maybe mold isn't an issue in those heaps when it's as cold as it looks there.

Yes it is. Haven't driven it much yet but it's no worse than the older one, if anything slightly better for towing because first seems lower.

We've just got the same for firewood deliveries, our last Isuzu did well for us but not enough capacity so we got this one with a bigger back and air suspension.

That's hardwood but only measured on the outside. Softwood like Douglas and larch is similar but dries quicker. I'm guessing the bark doesn't soak as much. I just put whole logs on top, try to put bent ones to match the top of the stack if possible but in general I keep it as quick to put up and take off as possible. Keeping the rain off the top seems to be key, anything that hits the side is balanced out by the wind.

Haha. I'm busy lambing actually but at least that's indoors. In all honesty everything has been different this year and we ended up not sheeting because we had such a good summer then ran out of time (and almost wood). I'm hoping to get back on top of it this year because I doubt we'll get lucky with weather twice. Most effective way I found was making sure it's on good bearers, and stacked out in the open in as much wind as possible. Avoid under trees, they make a huge difference. For the covers we use silage sheets for the best value, something like this (only an example not the best price or anything) https://www.allplas.co.uk/acatalog/4metre-wide-125mu--Heavy-duty-500gauge--Black--784.html#SID=547 I try to use 2 or 3 of us and have a morning to cover everything - 2 people holding the plastic and one on the log trailer putting a layer of logs dotted over top. I don't bother tying the sides, just leave them flapping about 2ft so you can unroll with the log crane when it comes to getting it in a hurry. We can get stuff down to 15-20% in a good summer, the issue is it goes back up 25+ by the time we're cutting it in the winter.

No exact figures but our mf35x (probably around 40hp now) won't run our 40ton ryetec properly. I only tried it for half an hour and never again. It runs easily on our 120deutz though so I would think less would be fine. Weirdly the most fuel efficient is our deutz 6215 on tickover at 1000economy but that's expensive in other ways.

Personally I would buy it all, leaving some can work but it's easy to fall out on amounts and who gets the tidy or rubbish bits. Supplying with logs is tempting but I wouldn't want to be stuck with a vague arrangement for years to come. You can get a tidy used log trailer for around 6k but if possible I would just hire one in for a couple of weeks. We hire our old 12ton for £200 a week but I have no idea what's normally charged.

I would pay up to £20 a ton depending on access and ease of felling. I look at current prices as £20 standing, £35 extraction and £15 haulage. Hopefully saving on some areas but that's a rough division.

More than it cost you to make ;). We're £140 for 1.8 tipped loose ranging to £280 for 4. Mid Wales. I don't sell individual bags but locally they range (ignoring the cheap fresh stuff from tree surgery) from £80-120.

Yes, both of ours are protech. We put in a lot of 12inch oak posts is why we went so heavy. I'm not sure about smaller ones, it's just a trade of between performance and reach with any size though.

300kg, we wanted the same as our tractor one. On levelish ground the digger can use it at full reach.

We've been doing a fair bit recently, mostly at home using our own oak stakes but occasionally have to give up and buy creosote stakes.

I've only got limited experience with a tree shear but I don't think you'll find anything lighter because they're so simple. If you get a tilt hitch on the digger it's relatively easy to reach up and take down branches and stems. If you're looking second hand it's much easier to get hold of a 13tonner if you have the access. Here's ours: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=405178583218215&id=260687344334007

An 8tonner will usually only take a 30cm tree shear which will be down to 25cm cutting hardwood. You can get bigger ones but you would need 13ton plus to take the weight.